Ninja Theory states that a Heavenly Sword demo is hitting very soon

In response to a question posed by a reader, Heavenly Sword's developer revealed that a playable demo will be released in the 'very near future'.

While answering many different questions from Heavenly Sword fans, Hart tackled a query concerning a downloadable demo. "I can confirm that we are, of course, going to be releasing a demo for Heavenly Sword... and soon," he said. "This will be downloadable via the Playstation Network... so keep an eye out for this in the very near future. And I mean very near future!"

He also stated that there won't be a special edition of Heavenly Sword, but that the normal edition would come stacked with as many extras as blu-ray can hold, including 'the first two episodes of a special animated series exploring the history of Heavenly Sword'.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/801/801496p1.html

The hands on previews of Heavenly Sword have been very positive, and I have been itching to play it for myself ever since I saw the first footage back in 2005. Hopefully the rumors of a Lair demo will also be confirmed shortly.

I'm also going to post a link to an old (by internet standards) youtube video of Heavenly Sword that I stumbled across on the GAF. It shows a good amount of stuff (the trailer is 3 minutes long) including Nariko tossing a barrel at an enemy and using the bazooka (whose ammo is limited) to take out several enemies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skjw37keeZ8

No direct link to GAF link provided because for some reason it keeps breaking.

Good news, indeed. The PS Store is suffering from a dearth of game demos.

For those unaware there is a banner ad advertising E3 in the PS store and indicating that it is clickable, but clicking it does nothing at the moment.

Also i would expect quite a bit of information from the playstation blog as well.

here is said banner

I'm also going to post a link to an old (by internet standards) youtube video of Heavenly Sword that I stumbled across on the GAF. It shows a good amount of stuff (the trailer is 3 minutes long) including Nariko tossing a barrel at an enemy and using the bazooka (whose ammo is limited) to take out several enemies.CarnageHeart

Hmm, that footage raises more concerns rather than my excitement. The camera seems troublesome and the action resembles more that of Onimusha than Ninja Gaiden or God of War. Enemies circling around you extremely slowly kind of bothers me and they don't seem particularly smart, the combat overall should be more frantic and fast-paced.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to check out the demo myself, but I'll be looking forward to some impressions from you guys.

Carnage might want to check your link to neogaf, maybe this is the thread your looking for http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167484 the thread you link to is an off topic thread.

upinflames here are game play descriptions from people who have played it as well as analyzing of the gameplay videos

From what I've seen, it looks like the enemies leave behind a streak when attacking, corresponding to what stance you need to be in. Blue looks to be speed (the default), Red for power, and yellow for range. Apparently in the video in the OP, a single enemy can have two different types of attacks, requiring the use of different stances. So apparently, the mechanic goes a lot deeper (and ends up being a lot more interesting) than it appears on the surface. Hopefully the it proves to be as deep as it potentially could be.

I guess Ninja Theory thought it would be overly complicated to have to switch stances, and then have to block, but didn't want to go for a standard blocking system, so opted for stance-based automatic blocking. It all depends on how the mechanic is executed over the course of the game. I'll wait for more impressions, and a chance to play the game myself.

We know there's speed, power and range stances.
We know that if you're in a specific stance, you'll automatically block incoming moves that match your stance.
We know that you hold L/R buttons to change stances on the fly, and that stance switching in the middle of combos is possible.
We know that there are "super moves" that require stance switching.
We know that there are counters/reversals after you block a move correctly.
We know that there's no jump button.Ktallguy

someones additions/fixes to that list.

Some fixes:
You can block any type of attack with speed stance, but there's a difference in how many attacks you can block. Power stance probably has problems with blocking fast attacks, and range stance probably has problems with blocking strong attacks (we haven't seen blocking withthem yet).

To put it simple, even though block is automatic, you won't be able to just stand there and wait for perfect moment to attack, cause your defense isn't impenetrable.

"inside the developers studio" from the PS blog.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6912730&postcount=894

There will be no limted addition, instead they are going to cram as much extras onto one BRD as they can, similar to God Of War 2, except that was two DVDs.

It looks pretty good, and the sense of scale seems impressive, but the whole gun thing seems kind of stupid and out of place.

The combat also looked tedious and derivative after a few minutes. With Sigma on the system, HS is going to have to bring its A-game.

But I'd be all over a demo to see for myself.

The Magic Box just posted a ton of new high rez shots of Heavenly Sword. Oddly, they claim Factor 5 is the developer.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0707/game070703b2.shtml

EDIT: The Magic Box appears to have copied the shots from the GAF (specifically that GAF thread Ireferencedin my first post but had trouble linking to).

I like whatI see, but all this talk there's going on about 30fps makes me nervous. Need to see this in motion, I have high hopes for this game.

I look forward to hearing me, this game can be really good if it nails the combat.GodModeEnabled

I remember reading a while back that puzzles will have no place in Heavenly Sword, so it is a game that will really live or die by the quality of its action. What I've seen looks fine to me (though clearly others disagree) but the proof is in the playing.

Given the competitive landscape (HS might hit in the same timeframe as DMC4 and NGS is out), its good that Ninja Theory is releasing a demo. GoW did very well against DMC (outselling it outside of Japan) and I attribute part of its success to the fact that demos were offered (I remember demo discs with just GoW on them as well as a GoW demo being on an OPM disk) so buyers weren't necessarily making leaps of faith.

I like whatI see, but all this talk there's going on about 30fps makes me nervous. Need to see this in motion, I have high hopes for this game.

nopalversion

Yea, that would be pretty dissapointing.

[QUOTE="GodModeEnabled"]I look forward to hearing me, this game can be really good if it nails the combat.CarnageHeart

I remember reading a while back that puzzles will have no place in Heavenly Sword, so it is a game that will really live or die by the quality of its action. What I've seen looks fine to me (though clearly others disagree) but the proof is in the playing.

Given the competitive landscape (HS might hit in the same timeframe as DMC4 and NGS is out), its good that Ninja Theory is releasing a demo. GoW did very well against DMC (outselling it outside of Japan) and I attribute part of its success to the fact that demos were offered (I remember demo discs with just GoW on them as well as a GoW demo being on an OPM disk) so buyers weren't necessarily making leaps of faith.

[QUOTE="nopalversion"]

I like whatI see, but all this talk there's going on about 30fps makes me nervous. Need to see this in motion, I have high hopes for this game.

yomi_basic

Yea, that would be pretty dissapointing.

Higher is better, but 30 fps in and of itself is nothing to turn one's nose up at (though if a game runs at 30 fps on the PS3 and 60 on the X360 there is a problem). Gears of Warrunsat 30 fps.

[QUOTE="yomi_basic"][QUOTE="nopalversion"]

I like whatI see, but all this talk there's going on about 30fps makes me nervous. Need to see this in motion, I have high hopes for this game.

CarnageHeart

Yea, that would be pretty dissapointing.

Higher is better, but 30 fps in and of itself is nothing to turn one's nose up at (though if a game runs at 30 fps on the PS3 and 60 on the X360 there is a problem). Gears of Warrunsat 30 fps.